Lilybrook
Herefords

Hans'
Editorial Page

Brisket
Disease

For Ranchers in high altitude who are concerned about "Brisket
Disease", we
have very good news. We can provide you with names of cattle people in
high country who
have used our bloodlines very successfully. Some of them are Pap
testing and have those
results on our cattle. Others are not testing because they have not had
a Brisket problem.
Please contact us if you are interested in what we have learned about
this costly problem.
We would also be happy to put you in contact with some of our
customers. Phone Hans: 403
625-2237.

Show Records?

We are fully aware that show records are used very
successfully by many breeders as a
merchandising tool! However, we have noticed that fertility, reasonable
birthweights,
weaning weights with no creep feed and most economic gain in the
feedlot, carry very
little weight in the show ring. Therefore we have dedicated our time to
select for these
traits which are of the highest economic importance to our commercial
customers.

During the years when Bull Test Stations performed an
important task to find top
gaining Herdbulls, we successfully took part in these tests, both as
buyers and sellers.
We have had high gainers and high sellers at Midland, Shaw, and
Northwest Bull Tests in
the U.S. Here at home, in Canada, we also had much success at the
Innisfail and Bassano
Test Stations. With the Test Station now almost a thing of the past we
are still using
home testing as an important part of our selection process.

We are very happy to note that the show ring is coming around
to thicker kind of
cattle, with less emphasis on extreme height. Of course for the time
many of those thicker
cattle are not genetically thicker, they are just fed harder and
therefore appear thicker.
We do recommend, if you want thickness, make sure it is natural
thickness and not just the
result of extreme feeding practices.

Warning.

The following is a statement about the cow business which
impressed us very much. We
would like to repeat it for your consideration.

"Warning: With too much potential for growth and
milk, in a low production
environment, the resulting wreck in reproduction can be disastrous"

We believe that a herd of easy keeping, moderate sized
Hereford cows will protect
anyone against this kind of a disaster!